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After weeks of work, the Senate passed the DRIVE Act today to reauthorize transportation policy and funding, on a vote of 65-34. However, the House of Representatives has forced the Senate’s hand into accepting a three-month extension of current law.

While the clock ticks quickly towards the July 31 expiration of transportation policy and funding, the Senate has been moving quickly (well, quickly for a legislative body that prides itself on a deliberative approach) to reach resolution.

This is the first in a series of blog posts highlighting pivotal moments in the history of the Safe Routes to School movement.

Dear Deb and Wendi: Thank you so much for creating the Safe Routes to School program sixteen years ago. It has really made a difference at Kent Middle School. I now walk to school every day I have a chance to. Sixty percent of our school now travels green, and it is truly because of the commitment you two have made. – Kent Middle School student, 2015

In May, a series of incomprehensible tragedies happened in the City of Portland and the surrounding region – vehicles hitting, hurting, maiming and killing people walking and riding bicycles. One crash after another.

Today, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) unveiled their new six-year transportation bill. The DRIVE Act (Developing a Reliable and Innovative Vision for the Economy Act) primarily shores up our existing interstate and road-focused transportation system. Unsurprisingly given its name, the bill does not adequately address the needs of communities all across the country that are increasingly

There is no doubt that good walking and biking infrastructure is essential to successful Safe Routes to School programs. However, many communities already have “the bones” of adequate infrastructure, especially around established community-based schools in suburban and urban communities, or through completed Safe Routes to School-funded engineering projects.

Late in the evening of June 9, as part of the House consideration of the transportation appropriations bill, Rep. Emmer (R-MN) offered an amendment that would have banned federal dollars from being used to put in sidewalks, bike racks and lighting as part of new transit projects. This amendment was a shortsighted attempt to prevent local jurisdictions from creating safe routes to transit.

Dedication. Passion. Commitment. These are all words that describe our Safe Routes to School champions across the nation, as evidenced not only by the great turnout for Bike to School Day but also by the increases we continue to see in bicycling and walking to school.

If you have been following our federal transportation updates for a while, this update may sound a bit like Groundhog’s Day. Yet again, Congress has voted to extend the MAP-21 transportation law and yet again, lack of funding is the culprit. MAP-21 is the law that enables funding through the Transportation Alternatives Program for Safe Routes to School, bicycling and walking projects.

As we are all thinking of getting more physically active this May for National Physical Fitness month, it only makes sense that we look at policies and practices to increase access to opportunities to be more physically active. This brings us to shared use, of course!

If you travel up North Mount Street between Laurens Street and Presbury Street you find the Gilmore Homes, now most infamously known as the place where Freddie Gray’s life began to slip away. I walked up North Mount, not shocked by what I saw, but filled with dismay. You could not go one street without a burned out home, abandoned property, or empty lot. Three corner stores represented the only nearby neighborhood

At the end of May, the current transportation law MAP-21 will expire unless Congress acts. Leaders in the House and Senate are currently wrestling over their options, with Congress likely to extend the current law until at least July and possibly through the rest of the year.

Can rural roads be good places to walk and bicycle? Why yes, they certainly can! My daughters got their first bicycles when they were five or six. They loved the bikes – but they couldn’t ride them. Because the streets in our small city were a little too busy for crazily uncoordinated families with bicycles and small children, we would drag ourselves, the girls, and the bikes over to the park every couple weeks. We would run around awkwardly holding the bicycle seats and trying to prevent the girls from crashing to the ground. While this did succeed in providing the whole family with

The Safe Routes to School National Partnership is pleased to support the For Every Kid Coalition in the Pacific Northwest region. For Every Kid is a growing coalition calling for Safe Routes to School for every kid in the Metro-area; vocal support from cities and school districts is an outcome of key partners coming together to promote the benefits and work with communities and we have been an active part of the leadership of this effort.